Olympus faux-technical sounding names

I wonder if I am the only one who finds the Olympus faux-technical sounding names hard to remember? All those hyphens and hard to remember exactly where they go. Why have hyphens at all? Wouldn't OMD EM5 work just as well?

OM-D E-M5OM-D E-M1OM-D E-M10PEN E-P5PEN E-PL5PEN E-PL6PEN E-PM2

Maybe go the Apple route and name the products without all the hyphens and strange coded letters. For example, Olympus could name their cameras after deadly epidemics:

I wonder if I am the only one who finds the Olympus faux-technical sounding names hard to remember? All those hyphens and hard to remember exactly where they go. Why have hyphens at all? Wouldn't OMD EM5 work just as well?

OM-D E-M5OM-D E-M1OM-D E-M10PEN E-P5PEN E-PL5PEN E-PL6PEN E-PM2

Maybe go the Apple route and name the products without all the hyphens and strange coded letters. For example, Olympus could name their cameras after deadly epidemics:

Why does everyone try to make this more complicated than it really is?

OM-D is a product line for those who like viewfinders, Pen is a product line where that feature is optional. The hyphen in OM-D is there to show it harks back to the famous OM film cameras but this time 'round it's Digital.

The "E-" is the line of cameras within the early Olympus system of naming. Originally there were "C-" and D-" cameras as well, and the "E-" were the system cameras, but over time marketing triumphed and the old C- and D- morphed into something else but the E- carried on to this day. Look down the bottom of the page at http://www.dpreview.com/products/olympus/cameras?subcategoryId=cameras to see the old naming.

So in Olympus forums the names E-M10, E-M5, E-PM2, E-PL5 etc etc all make perfect sense, no need for the product line prefix. In fact if we all got lazy then M10, M5, PM2, PL5 also make perfect sense here but would upset some predantic purist.

So relax and don't get your knickers in a knot about camera names, it's all so easy when you think about it.

I wonder if I am the only one who finds the Olympus faux-technical sounding names hard to remember? All those hyphens and hard to remember exactly where they go. Why have hyphens at all? Wouldn't OMD EM5 work just as well?

OM-D E-M5OM-D E-M1OM-D E-M10PEN E-P5PEN E-PL5PEN E-PL6PEN E-PM2

Maybe go the Apple route and name the products without all the hyphens and strange coded letters. For example, Olympus could name their cameras after deadly epidemics:

I agree, and I think we're well past the point of needing an "E" prefix, since PEN and OM-D already differentiate the product lines. OMD-5, OMD-1 and OMD-10 make sense to me, but it doesn't really bother me, we just call them what we want anyway...

Why does everyone try to make this more complicated than it really is?

OM-D is a product line for those who like viewfinders, Pen is a product line where that feature is optional. The hyphen in OM-D is there to show it harks back to the famous OM film cameras but this time 'round it's Digital.

The "E-" is the line of cameras within the early Olympus system of naming. Originally there were "C-" and D-" cameras as well, and the "E-" were the system cameras, but over time marketing triumphed and the old C- and D- morphed into something else but the E- carried on to this day. Look down the bottom of the page at http://www.dpreview.com/products/olympus/cameras?subcategoryId=cameras to see the old naming.

So in Olympus forums the names E-M10, E-M5, E-PM2, E-PL5 etc etc all make perfect sense, no need for the product line prefix. In fact if we all got lazy then M10, M5, PM2, PL5 also make perfect sense here but would upset some predantic purist.

So relax and don't get your knickers in a knot about camera names, it's all so easy when you think about it.

Regards.... Guy

Two problems. One: the main point of differentiation that you offer is not exactly dispository. OM-D has a viewfinder whereas PEN...may or may not, it depends... That's as clear as mud.

Second, nowhere does anyone explain what all the letters mean. I bought into Olympus m43 two years ago and your differentiation between OM-D and PEN lines is the first I have heard of it - I've never understood the difference.

It's exponentially worse for people familiarizing themselves with the brand for the first time. I have a friend currently trying to understand the naming schemes for Nikon and Canon cameras. He's wondering why both companies insist on using only the digits 5, 6, 0 and D to name their mid-range cameras - and he's right of course. It's idiotic.

There are a million ways to name products. The way that camera companies do it is genuinely stupid.

I wonder if I am the only one who finds the Olympus faux-technical sounding names hard to remember? All those hyphens and hard to remember exactly where they go. Why have hyphens at all? Wouldn't OMD EM5 work just as well?

OM-D E-M5OM-D E-M1OM-D E-M10PEN E-P5PEN E-PL5PEN E-PL6PEN E-PM2

Maybe go the Apple route and name the products without all the hyphens and strange coded letters. For example, Olympus could name their cameras after deadly epidemics:

Why does everyone try to make this more complicated than it really is?

OM-D is a product line for those who like viewfinders, Pen is a product line where that feature is optional. The hyphen in OM-D is there to show it harks back to the famous OM film cameras but this time 'round it's Digital.

The "E-" is the line of cameras within the early Olympus system of naming. Originally there were "C-" and D-" cameras as well, and the "E-" were the system cameras, but over time marketing triumphed and the old C- and D- morphed into something else but the E- carried on to this day. Look down the bottom of the page at http://www.dpreview.com/products/olympus/cameras?subcategoryId=cameras to see the old naming.

So in Olympus forums the names E-M10, E-M5, E-PM2, E-PL5 etc etc all make perfect sense, no need for the product line prefix. In fact if we all got lazy then M10, M5, PM2, PL5 also make perfect sense here but would upset some predantic purist.

So relax and don't get your knickers in a knot about camera names, it's all so easy when you think about it.

Regards.... Guy

I've bolded basically exactly why I think these names are so odd for myself and others.

I had no idea where the "OM-D" name came from when the EM5 was released. I probably wasn't born when people were running around with OMs and Pens.

Why do we need E-PL and E-PM if "PEN" is already part of the full name? Or does that P stand for something else...? Olympus PEN Electronic-PEN1?

EDIT: So if M means mirrorless, are the E-PL, E-PM, E-P lines not mirrorless? If D means Digital, why do we need Electronic? So what happens when a OM-D (or a PEN?) comes out with emphasis on electronic shutters? Is it an OM-D E-EM?

I'm sure for people familiar with Olympus it all makes sense, but I stick to Panasonic and have no clue about Olympus's history, so I tend to forget where the hypens go and etc.

But...

All other camera manufacturers tend to stick to one designation for their entire line. Sony had alpha for DSLRs, NEX for MILCs, now its all alpha.

Panasonic starts all their m43s with "G" and it all began with the "G1" Simple enough, although its starting to be confusing since its G, GF, GX, GH, GM. But hey, at least there arent any weird hypens in there unless you want the whole model name, then just add "DMC-" to everything.

Canon has EOS. Nikon has D___. It also helps that these two companies kept their numbering scheme the same, single digits = flagships, more digits = lower end. Not sure how that makes sense, but its easy to remember since they both do it that way, and Olympus used to do it that way as well (E-420, E-520, E-5).

Two problems. One: the main point of differentiation that you offer is not exactly dispository. OM-D has a viewfinder whereas PEN...may or may not, it depends... That's as clear as mud.

Well, let us make it simpler. The OM-D line is for those who like their cameras to look like DSLRs, the Pen line is for those who like their cameras to look like rangefinder style bodies.

Some of us must use viewfinders, others don't like viewfinders and can happily live without them (= me).

Second, nowhere does anyone explain what all the letters mean. I bought into Olympus m43 two years ago and your differentiation between OM-D and PEN lines is the first I have heard of it - I've never understood the difference.

Pen because they played the history/nostalgia thing to "revive" the idea of the original Pen film cameras, though they were half frame and this now is quarter frame. Then of course the OM-D from the OM film cameras, it's all about bald old geezers making major decisions.

The Pen line is logical in that E-PMx means Mini and E-PLx means Lite and the prestige/costly Pen is just the E-Px model.

The OM-D line is really screwed up and may eventually go back to the way they had the film cameras where single digit was top of the line, double digit was mid and more digits for lesser models.They even sold an Olympus OM2000 which was made for Olympus by Cosina, just as the Nikon FE-10 was made by Cosina and looked much the same. More on numbers of those old OM cameras here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_OM_system

In my mind the E-M5 should have been called the E-M10, E-M1 is OK and the current E-M10 should be say E-M100, but the company was in desperate straights at that time (two years ago) with rumbles & angst due to the huge financial scandal and they had to hit the streets running with something that sounded and looked good. In my opinion the E-M5 came out a bit earlier than it should have but it sure was a lot better than previous cameras. The hero product that saved their bacon and reassured the shareholders.

It's exponentially worse for people familiarizing themselves with the brand for the first time. I have a friend currently trying to understand the naming schemes for Nikon and Canon cameras. He's wondering why both companies insist on using only the digits 5, 6, 0 and D to name their mid-range cameras - and he's right of course. It's idiotic.

Idiotic equates to Marketing generally, engineering would have had some sensible project name for each camera.

There are a million ways to name products. The way that camera companies do it is genuinely stupid.

Agreed, but they try to make out they are all different, but they are all much the same with some minor differences. Just about any camera now is good.

So in Olympus forums the names E-M10, E-M5, E-PM2, E-PL5 etc etc all make perfect sense, no need for the product line prefix. In fact if we all got lazy then M10, M5, PM2, PL5 also make perfect sense here but would upset some predantic purist.

Dropping the E would get confusing for me. I see M10 and automatically think of the new Leica (yes, I know technically it's just the M, or the M 240 but that won't stop people calling it the M10), and with the panasonic GM1 out calling the EM1 just the M1 will be even more confusing on these forums. Personally I just don't bother with the hyphens.

I wonder if I am the only one who finds the Olympus faux-technical sounding names hard to remember?

They should rationalise the naming eg.,

OMD Pro

OMD

OMD Lite

Pen Pro

Pen

Pen Mini

While I have no trouble keeping the camera names in my head, I like the idea you have. I want to see the names changed like you have it here. But, get rid of the Pen Mini, with 3 OMD cameras and they selling so well, the Pen line just needs to cameras.

D = Digital (in case you thought they all of a sudden started making analog cameras again)

E = Electronic (because maybe you thought it was mechanical)

M = Mirrorless

1 = The best (until a better one comes along)

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Jim Salvas

Compared to "GH4" it's actually way overkill, IMHO...

Real world impact?

That's the crux of the matter isn't it? I agree the naming scheme isn't hard to figure out once you've done a little bit of research, that's exactly the problem tho, most consumers are gonna do next to no research and they couldn't care less about OM this or Pen that... This kinda branding just makes it even harder to market their products; granted, it's probably not even amongst the top five reasons why Canikon have far more mindshare, but every little bit helps.

Not all cars have quirky names like Rabbit or Pathfinder, but the ones called WRX or 328i aren't changing their numbering/lettering every year either... If you ask me, the only reason to go with more obscure branding is when you're trying to hide something. Intel went to obscure numbering when the GHz race was over, video card companies have always been there because they rebrand old products like crazy.

The camera industry seems to straddle this line between common consumer good (car, phone, etc) and specialized enthusiast/pro tool... It's not doing itself any favors IMO.

Sometimes a name is just a name tho... Except, apparently, if it has the number 4 and you're Japanese. Speaking of which, whatever happened to all the bad juju that would befall them if they used 4? Both of the main Pen lines and the G/GF lines purposely skipped the 4 yet all of a sudden we have a GH4? Now THAT's confusing!

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